Date-Based Ticket Price Discussion

TCups4Me

DIS Article Contributor
Joined
Aug 12, 2008
I figured Disney planned the roll out of their new pricing structure on a Tuesday so that it coincided with DIS podcast day! But no discussion about it. Wah wah. (That's completely tongue in cheek, by the way.)Maybe I'm alone in my excitement of this change and I should stick to my spreadsheets outlining all the possibilities. SO. MANY. POSSIBILITIES. :magnify:

I typically hold off until the last minute when I have to purchase something non-refundable that is date-based (Museum, local theme park, Lego Discovery Center tickets). I'm a bit more lenient now that my credit card has decent purchase and trip cancellation insurance. I have to wonder if this will affect how far in advance people book their trips. Or if it will encourage them to book an on-site package, which has a fairly generous cancellation policy.

Love the show, always have. Interested to get your take on this.
-Liz
 
I think Disney has made an already complicated system 100 times worse. Now not only do you need to decide when to go, you need to figure out in advance exactly which days you want to go to the parks. There are certainly people who do that already, but with the new ticket system it has become a requirement. That might be fine for the uber-planners but I worry how it will affect the casual guest who doesn't know the ins and outs of the system. How many of them will be tripped up by the new system and end up with tickets that don't work when they want them to? The biggest issue I see is the super short window to use the ticket. For example, a 3-day pass is now only good for 5 days. So if you're going for a week and wanted to spread out your 3 days, you can't do it the same way you could before with a MYW ticket. If you hit a park on day 1, you've got to use the other 2 days by day 5. You can't wait until day 6 or 7. I think this is one place where people will run into trouble.
 
I think with any change we have to think about what Disney gets out of it/what is their motivation

I think there are a few things:
- Obviously more $ as the more popular dates (with the highest crowds) are more expensive so more $ those days
- But some days are actually a bit cheaper than last year so despite price increase Disney can market "a family of 4 can vacation for just XXXX ... so now the magic is even more within reach than ever before!"
- gives them more data ahead of time on what crowds will be each day so they can more properly staff
- motivates people to stay on site - if you stay onsite your tickets are good for the length of your stay so in the scenario @disneysteve describes above - a week long stay with only 3 day tickets if you stay on site you have the full week to use them
- Tries to get people for the focus of their trip to be just Disney - @disneysteve is spot on that the people hurt the most are those that would come down for a week or more, stay off site, and get tickets for a few days at Disney and spread those days out - now those people have to focus their time more

I actually was expecting it to be worse/more restrictive. Yes you have to pick a starting date, but you at least get a few extra days of flexibility to allow for a down day or two and you can move your date if need be
 
- gives them more data ahead of time on what crowds will be each day so they can more properly staff
That's an interesting thought. I wonder how true this will be in practice. Will the new ticketing system give them a much better handle on the anticipated crowds on any given day? I guess time will tell.

- motivates people to stay on site - if you stay onsite your tickets are good for the length of your stay
Really? I didn't read all of the fine print but I didn't realize the ticket terms were different depending on where you were staying. Or are you just referring to tickets bought as part of an onsite package? If you book your trip a la carte, aren't you getting the same tickets as the offsite guest gets?
 


That's an interesting thought. I wonder how true this will be in practice. Will the new ticketing system give them a much better handle on the anticipated crowds on any given day? I guess time will tell.


Really? I didn't read all of the fine print but I didn't realize the ticket terms were different depending on where you were staying. Or are you just referring to tickets bought as part of an onsite package? If you book your trip a la carte, aren't you getting the same tickets as the offsite guest gets?

Yes, to be precise it is only if purchased as part of a package - so guess I should have said to push people towards packages

Disney Theme Park Tickets Purchased as Part of a Walt Disney Travel Company Package

Tickets purchased as part of a Walt Disney Travel Company room and ticket package are valid for admissions beginning on the date of check-in and must be used by the date of check-out, or in accordance with the validity windows listed above—whichever period is longer.
 
I think there are a few things:
- gives them more data ahead of time on what crowds will be each day so they can more properly staff

This is what worries me. Understaffing leading SB wait times to stay the same year round.

If the ticket pricing works like hotel, cruise and airline pricing the farther out you plan a trip, the cheaper it is. However, not everyone can plan that far out.

Plus, it can make budgeting a bit difficult. You could possible book a 5 day trip with 2 of the days at $200/day tickets (Sat. and Sun.) while Mon-Fri are $100.
 
This is what worries me. Understaffing leading SB wait times to stay the same year round.

If the ticket pricing works like hotel, cruise and airline pricing the farther out you plan a trip, the cheaper it is. However, not everyone can plan that far out.

Plus, it can make budgeting a bit difficult. You could possible book a 5 day trip with 2 of the days at $200/day tickets (Sat. and Sun.) while Mon-Fri are $100.

My understanding is that, at least for now, they are not yielding the prices - so the prices for each day will stay what they are and not go up or down over time based on how they “fill up” - definitely could see that come in the future
 


On October 1, I bought Four (4) - 5 day park hoppers for my end of November trip. Just for fun, I ran the numbers again with this new Date based pricing and the tickets totaled out to about $80 more, so an average of about $20 dollars a ticket more. I'll be there beginning on a Friday.

I am sure that perhaps on the winter Equinox of every leap year, this system will produce a cheaper ticket than the system before, but for all the other times, this is going to be a big ticket increase for people.

Just the reality of it.
 
I am sure that perhaps on the winter Equinox of every leap year, this system will produce a cheaper ticket than the system before, but for all the other times, this is going to be a big ticket increase for people.
I don't think anyone saw this as a price drop, including Disney. The spin is more that you now have more control if you are able to shift your visit to a time when the price is lower. I can see the advantage of that for some people, especially folks with either preschool aged children or no school aged children who are free to travel whenever they'd like. It doesn't help the folks who are tied to the school calendar because I'm sure the highest prices will be during typical school holiday periods.
 
On October 1, I bought Four (4) - 5 day park hoppers for my end of November trip. Just for fun, I ran the numbers again with this new Date based pricing and the tickets totaled out to about $80 more, so an average of about $20 dollars a ticket more. I'll be there beginning on a Friday.

I am sure that perhaps on the winter Equinox of every leap year, this system will produce a cheaper ticket than the system before, but for all the other times, this is going to be a big ticket increase for people.

Just the reality of it.

I’ve seen multiple people say their pricing went down - so it is real

Though, once you add on the extra flexibility option the prices would be more so not exactly apples-to-apples

Either way still not the absolute $ increase I was fearing (I was wondering if super peak days like Christmas or 4th of July would hit $200- that level of increase)
 
I was fearing (I was wondering if super peak days like Christmas or 4th of July would hit $200- that level of increase)
We'll get there soon enough but Disney always moves the prices up incrementally to make it less noticeable. 10% here, 15% there. They bump them up a couple of times a year at 5-7 times the actual inflation rate and before we know it, everything costs double what it did 4 or 5 years ago. Pete predicted we'd see a $200 ticket price sometime after Galaxy's Edge opens. What was a 1-day MK ticket before the change? $125? I'd guess $200 is still about 3 years away but it could be sooner if SW:GE warrants it.
 
We'll get there soon enough but Disney always moves the prices up incrementally to make it less noticeable. 10% here, 15% there. They bump them up a couple of times a year at 5-7 times the actual inflation rate and before we know it, everything costs double what it did 4 or 5 years ago. Pete predicted we'd see a $200 ticket price sometime after Galaxy's Edge opens. What was a 1-day MK ticket before the change? $125? I'd guess $200 is still about 3 years away but it could be sooner if SW:GE warrants it.

I also could see this (especially as this was second price change this year) that this was just to get people used to the new structure and hen the big price increase comes year

I also expect to see a vey expensive hard ticket event for Galaxy’s Edge. If people will pay $79/person for a few extra hours at Toy Story Land I could see double that easy for Galaxy’s Edge
 
this was just to get people used to the new structure and then the big price increase comes year
I have no doubt that the new system is just step one. Price yielding will probably come next: buy early and save because the price will increase as the date approaches. And actual dated tickets will be the final step. Want to come on Christmas Day or New Year's Eve? That's where that $200 ticket will show up.

I also expect to see a vevy expensive hard ticket event for Galaxy’s Edge. If people will pay $79/person for a few extra hours at Toy Story Land I could see double that easy for Galaxy’s Edge
Agreed. Those tickets will be hot and people will happily pay big bucks for them especially if Disney plays it up and adds some perks like special meet and greets or themed food or something else not available during regular hours. I'd be shocked at anything less than $150pp.
 
Could someone explain how the process works with obtaining promotional discounts on existing packages? It was touched on yesterday during the DW podcast, but I am still confused. I have a package for June 2019 (reserved back in July) and will be looking into promotional discounts for the package. Will I have to pay more even with the discount because of the new ticketing structure? I am just wondering if I should leave well enough alone with the discount and just work on paying off the reservation.
 
Could someone explain how the process works with obtaining promotional discounts on existing packages? It was touched on yesterday during the DW podcast, but I am still confused. I have a package for June 2019 (reserved back in July) and will be looking into promotional discounts for the package. Will I have to pay more even with the discount because of the new ticketing structure? I am just wondering if I should leave well enough alone with the discount and just work on paying off the reservation.

My understanding is that if you are moving to a new promotion that you would be subject to the new ticketing method - so you would have to see if the change winds up as a net positive or negative for you.
 
I’ve seen multiple people say their pricing went down - so it is real

I priced out a trip (package) before the ticket system changed. I wanted to see what the price difference would be. I used June 8th to June 15th, staying at Coronado, with the regular dinning plan, 6 day hoppers and Memory Maker. When I priced out the same thing after the change, it was about $30 cheaper. Not a big change but still cheaper.
 
I priced out a trip (package) before the ticket system changed. I wanted to see what the price difference would be. I used June 8th to June 15th, staying at Coronado, with the regular dinning plan, 6 day hoppers and Memory Maker. When I priced out the same thing after the change, it was about $30 cheaper. Not a big change but still cheaper.

Yeah, definitely- and will be very subjective to when traveling but are situations where it went down a little

Glad it worked out for you
 
Unfortunately we are not going this year or in 2019. Maybe 2020. I was just looking to see if there was a difference. I can't wait to go back though. It was been a few years.
 
My understanding is that if you are moving to a new promotion that you would be subject to the new ticketing method - so you would have to see if the change winds up as a net positive or negative for you.[/Q


I was hoping to find some clarification as well with my existing package. im hoping to add Memory maker and wonderland tea party for my daughter and making sure add-ons don't fall into linking on the new pricing tier. it makes sense for promo codes since that changes the base package price but I guess its just me worrying and trying to be prepared.
 

I don’t think add on would impact it - and seemed like even some things (like adding a day to hotel stay, etc) wouldn’t require you to change to new state .... more if you are really changing to something different that has a different structure ....

... so I think you would be fine, but never hurts to call to double check!
 

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